LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Costumes, sets and cinematography all
play vital roles along with the actors in creating the mood
of a film. But the final flourish is the music.

"Trust me, if you're working on a $70 million movie and
you're the last guy, you feel all that weight on your
shoulders," said Hans Zimmer, who is up for Oscar nominations
for scoring both "The Prince of Egypt" and "The Thin Red
Line."

The pressure is especially intense, Zimmer said, "when
(producers) are going, 'This scene really doesn't work and we need some help here,' and you realize what they're saying is you
can make or break this movie."

Stamina is key, said Randy Newman, Oscar-nominated for the
scores of "Pleasantville" and "A Bug's Life" and a song from
"Babe: Pig in the City."

"You'll be working all day and you'll have finished 12
seconds, but you get into it and you try not to look up,"
said Newman, who comes from a family of film composers.

The hard work pays off for the few composers who take the
spotlight on Oscar night.

An Academy Award nomination for the song "The Prayer" in
"Quest for Camelot" was particularly poignant for its
writers, David Foster and Carole Bayer Sager, as they had to
fight to keep the producers of the film from cutting it.

"They loved it, they just thought it slowed down the action,"
Bayer Sager said. "We were just relentless, saying, 'Please,
please. It's an emotion.'"